THE FIRST YEARS

Taranaki Daily News, 4 March 1935, Page 9

THE FIRST YEARS

MEMORIES OF TEACHERS MISS LYDIA SHAW, HEADMISTRESS. SOME POPULAR ASSISTANTS. In many respects the old-style teacher was like the old-style family ’ physician. With the passing of the years the doctor’s beneficent influence expanded until he became the kindly confessor-counsellor from whom an ever-widening family circle sought advice on woes and troubles neither medical nor surgical. Miss Lydia Shaw, the first headmistress of the West End School, closely resembled those old physicians in her relation to the community. She opened the school in June, 1884, and remained in charge until her retirement in 1900 and during those 16 years she became mentor to hundreds of boys and girls who had passed through her hands.

-Her advice was sought by parents who recognised her wisdom and by young teachers who knew her talents. There must be hundreds of men and women in Taranaki and scattered over Mew Zealand who' owe their education to Miss Shaw.

Before she died at the age of 93 on December 31, 1927, she would frequently be stopped in the streets of New Plymouth by a man or woman who recognised her; her slim, trim figure, her upright carriage and her still sprightly step. “Don’t you remember me, Miss. Shaw?’’ they would say. “I am —And then the mention of some special incident would recall to the aged teacher a whole train of memories to be discussed with delight and animation. Miss Shaw first taught when in 1868 she took over a small school conducted in the meeting house of the Kawau pa, on'a hill since levelled, at the bottom of Currie Lane. This institution was subsidised by the Provincial Government, but in 1878 it was moved to the sandhills behind the present Foresters’ hall in Gill Street and was taken over by the Colonial Government under the Education Act. passed 1 that year. Miss Shaw thus became the first Government woman teacher in Taranaki. WEST SCHOOL STARTED. In 1884 her school was closed in common . with other similar establishments and from several positions offered her she chose that of headmistress of the new school on South Road called in those days the West school. There children

were' taught up to the second standard before being sent on to the main Central school.

To pupils just starting school Miss Shaw at first appeared somewhat stem, but they soon learned to respect and to love her. She had no compunction about using the cane on refractory pupils or detaining them after school hours, and some of the boys thought her unnecessarily exacting because she made them wash their grimy hands after playing marbles. “But a finer teacher never breathed,” said one of her former boy pupils the other day. “Many of her pupils who have been successful in life’s hard battle must look back with thoughts of kindness and gratitude for the grand old lady who moulded their characters, always impressing on them the need for clean thoughts, kind actions and the will to succeed.

“We always knew her affectionately as 'Granny Shaw.’ A stern disciplinarian, as refractory pupils found to' their sorrow, she was unfailingly fair in her dealings, and a kindly pat on the head or shoulder cheered and helped many a backward pupil to renewed effort in what seemed then a hard daily grind.” Many old pupils will recall how elder girls when inclined to be pert were called from their seats and laid across “Granny’s” knee for the administration of the flat of the hand, not light. TO SCHOOL IN A CAB. It was Miss Shaw's custom to come to school each morning in a cab driven by the late Mr. R. B. Honeyfield, arriving punctually at 9.25. The same conveyance would call for her at 3.0 p.m. and it often happened that many a well deserved punishment was escaped by pupils detained after school hours because they were shrewd enough to draw Miss Shaw’s attention to the fact that the carriage was waiting. They knew that she could not bear to see horses standing either in the hot sun or in the rain.

Recollections of other teachers during Miss Shaw’s regime occupy pleasant places in the memories of the earlier old pupils. There was Miss Ada Roby,

described as “one of the gentlest and kindest teachers tiny tots ever knew.” Patient with shy or backward children and ever seeking to make her charges happy, she was loved' by those she taught Even after 50 years one of her pupils says he' has vivid recollections of children flocking round her before school commenced in the mornings. And at lunch time and after school finished, for the day they would crowd eagerly about her again. “We do not want to play if you will tell us stories, Miss Roby,” they would say, and she would weave stories that delighted them. They worshipped her and lessons became easy under her instruction.

Miss Fanny Smith, another assistant teacher, is remembered as rather staid and reserved. She seldom smiled at the amusing blunders of those under her care, but she was painstaking and undertook to instil a. knowledge not only of “the three R’s” but also a knowledge of the obstacles to be overcome and the hardships to be endured in the years to come. The children of those days had a fine regard for the splendid woman who rode her old black horse several miles each day, rain, hail or shine, except when rheumatism affected her so severely that she was unable to make the journey and her sister, Miss Kate Smith, would take her place. Miss Rose Cowling was another of the early assistant teachers who was unusually popular with the scholars.